JOURNALISTIC SURVEY

In accordance to the Law on Broadcasting, news programs
and public-political programs shall not be sponsored. The law also
prohibits placement of commercial advertisements in the news programs
which last less than 30 minutes. According to the same law,
administrative institution cannot sponsor the program. Kakheti region
based local TV-stations and self-governmental institutions breach the
law.

On November 27, 2010 about 100 residents of Vazisubani village in
Gurjaani district held protest rally against the JSC Kakheti Energy
Distribution Company. They requested restoration of electricity supply.
The rally participants blocked the Telavi-Tbilisi motorway for several
minutes.

The previous Regional Governor in Shida Kartli -Lado
Vardzelashvili, passed down the instructions to the current governor of
the region Zurab Arsoshvili. According to those instructions, the state
budget should cover the flat-rents for several officials of the local
authority. Of the 1,600 liters of fuel in total, 1,000 liters of fuel
was earmarked for the regional governor, and the other 600 liters for
his deputy.

“Civil Institutionalism Development Fund” was established in the
framework of the second wave of democratic reforms of the government in
2009. The Fund is funded from the reserve fund of the government and it
aims to support non-governmental organizations.

Information on usage of false ID cards in the 2008
presidential and parliamentary elections and 2010 local government
elections has been spread by different sources. But the scheme of its
usage – false ID cards made before elections, inclusion of these numbers
in the lists of Central Election Commission, bringing citizens from
different regions (to exclude the embarrassment and their recognition by
others), who agreed or were forced to fulfill the order and voting with
false ID cards, - was so refined that it was virtually impossible to
find out about it.

What were legal basis for the removal of Stalin’s statue
in Gori? Why did the government decide to dismantle the statue at night
which was set up while Stalin was still alive? Did the people request
it and what are official documents to prove it? We started to collect
information about the removal of the statue next day after it was
dismantled; the procedures took more than two months.

“Before the Rose Revolution we lived
in a country where nobody respected education and people succeeded with
the support of their influential relatives and wealth. Today we live in
a country, where there is only one criterion for employment:
professionalism and patriotism. Acquaintance, friendship, and relation
should not work in selecting the colleagues,” President Mikheil
Saakashvili stated on July 20, 2010 in Kvareli district.

How many people were lost after the 2008 Russia-Georgia war? According
to the Ministry of the Internal Affairs, only 7 people are lost.
Although, the Human Rights Center journalistic investigation shows that
the number of the lost people is much higher.

The Conservative party member Demur
Antia was arrested on September 5th, 2008 in the morning at 5 o’clock.
The search took place in his home early in the morning. Police found
guns on the second floor in the children’s room. Despite the obvious
violations in his case, Antia was convicted a year in prison.

The president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili announced the plan of the
development and rehabilitation of the infrastructure in Anaklia on
September 8 last year and promised the locals that in 2-3 years Anaklia
would be a nice sea-resort. Those Spanish architects will work on the
project of “New Anaklia” who planned the new boulevard in Batumi. He
said yacht-club, hanging bridge, boulevard and new infrastructure will
be constructed in Anaklia. However, the local people could not even
imagine that it would happen at the expense of their property.

Kartlos Kipiani, deputy head of the Georgian Government administration office, sold his aunt’s house in spite of the fact that power of attorney had expired. The sale resulted in 20,000 GEL being transferred to his personal bank account. He never shared any of the proceeds with his aunt during the proceeding legal process between him and his aunt, Nani Kiphiani, and which has been continuing now for three years.

On June 9, 2010 TV-Company “Imedi” reported in its morning news program that director of the public school in the village of Balghojiani in Kvareli district Zurab Tabagari was accused in the attempt of the rape of a school-girl from the 9th form. Three teachers accused the director in the crime. On the same day, one more telecast was shown by the TV-Company “Imedi” in its 8:00 pm news program “Chronicle” where a resident of Balghojiani village Levan Kekenadze stated that the school director was blamed in similar activities in the past too and several people wanted to kill him because of his behavior.

Member of the Ossetian
Association in Georgia Giorgi Khetaguri disappeared for three years. He
was detained on October 29, 2006 but the law enforcement bodies did not inform anybody about
it. The society received complete information only after Giorgi
Khetaguri served the complete sentence. Khetaguri, convicted for the
purchase and usage of narcotics, said that he was sent to prison on
political grounds. The law enforcement officers wanted to compel him to
be their informer on the Ossetian side.

Several ethnic Ossetians have
disappeared during recent years (Khatuna Charaeva, Lavrenti Kaziev,
Ibragim Laliev, Vladimer Eloev). The relatives finally found the
missing people in the Georgian detention settings. Later, the law
enforcement officers released the detainees and transferred them to the
Tskhinvali regime. After studying their cases, we doubt that Georgian
side arbitrarily detained Ossetians on purpose in order to involve them
in espionage or to exchange them into Georgian hostages.

Region-based media outlets protest the violation of the
right to freedom of information by public agencies. “We cannot carry out
our journalistic activities when the information is restricted. By
blocking the public information, the government tries to deprive the
society from their right – to get correct information,” statement of the
media representatives signed by 18 media-outlets.

US State Department published its report about the human rights situation in Georgia early in March of 2010. The document is very critical and it highlights many facts of human rights violation throughout Georgia in 2009. The information provided by the Georgian and foreign non-governmental organizations and by the report of the public defender of Georgia is used in the report. US State Department in fact admitted that there are political prisoners in Georgia.

A person was murdered at Georgia-Azerbaijan border. Witnesses said Azeri border guard shot 16-year-old Akhmed Gaurgashvili, resident of the village of Erisimedi in Sighnaghi district, on Georgian territory. Locals state Georgian border guards do not control the border; they are standing only at the checkpoint at the entrance to the village.

In the evening of March 13th, the invented story released by the TV-Company Imedi about a new war panicked and astonished the Georgian population. The short warning was made before the reportage, where journalists stated the story was simulated, though there was no banner on the reportage itself stating that information was fake.

Last December, American congressman Frank Wolf sent letter to the Minister of Justice of Georgia Zurab Adeishvili and requested to release political prisoners. The Congressman quoted an extract from the report of the US State Department on Human Rights which discusses politically motivated detentions together with other violations; the report also underscores oppression on the judiciary system by the government. Before that, FIDH confirmed existence of political prisoners in Georgia.